Spacewalkers Complete Installation of Ammonia Jumper Cable

Drew Feustel and Greg Chamitoff are more than three hours in to today’s spacewalk. They have completed the installation of the ammonia jumper cable that will connect the cooling loops of the station’s port-3 and 4 segments. This task was necessary for activities scheduled for the second spacewalk in which Feustel and Mike Fincke will top off the ammonia in the station’s port-6 photovoltaic thermal control system cooling loop, which has a slow ammonia leak.

They started by installing the cable, then they vented nitrogen from the loops between the port-1 and port-5 segments and from the jumper that connects the ammonia reservoir that will be used for the refill on the second spacewalk.

Next, they will move on to the Destiny laboratory for their final major task for today, where they will be installing antennas for the External Wireless Communication (EWC) system. That task is expected to take about two and a half hours.

Feustel will work on routing the cables to which it will connect while Chamitoff sets up the antenna. Chamitoff will first remove two handrails on Destiny and replace them with EWC handrails, which have the antennas integrated. Each handrail is held in place by two bolts. Once the antenna handrails are installed, Chamitoff will connect two power cables, and Feustel will connect three more and store two additional cables for future use.

Feustel will wrap up the first spacewalk of the mission by preparing tools and equipment that will be used in the second and third spacewalks.